Hans Lippershey applied for the first patent for a refracting telescope in 1608. He was a Dutch spectacle maker. How Lippershey came up with the idea to invent the telescope we will never know for sure but I for one am grateful for his contribution to astronomy.

Some people claim that he was watching two children playing with the spectacles in his shop when the children discovered that stacking the spectacles together and looking through them enlarged the weather- vane that they were looking at. Others claim that Lippershey’s apprentice came up with the idea while working with the supplies in Lippershey’s shop. Still others claim that Lippershey simply applied for a patent on someone else’s idea. As with much of history, the truth will never be known. Read More →